228 



THE TLOEAL WORLD AND GATIDEN GTIIDE. 



during tlie winter than from any other 

 cause. In order to exclude tlie frost, 

 make up a thick casing quite to the top, 

 and all round the pit. This may be formed 

 of dry leaves and fern, or any other dry 

 litter ; it will be necessary to provide some 

 portable covering to prevent the wet from 

 getting into the casing ; and the bottom 

 should be rendered available for the egress 

 of moisture from the wall of the pit. The 

 test covering for the glass is dry rubbish, 



hay, and a mat on the top of that to keep 

 it dry, and prevent its being scattered by 

 I the wind. These materials should always 

 j be placed under cover, when it is likely to 

 be wet. Particular attention should be 

 ! paid to having the pits uncovered when- 

 I ever the weather will admit, and also to 

 I give air copiously on every favourable op- 

 portunity. 



"W, Anseli. 



ALPINIA (RENEALMIA) NUTANS. 



This beautiful exotic was introduced into 

 our collections as long ago as 1789, and, 

 from the shape of its leaves and stems, was 

 supposed to be an amomum. It was 

 nearly ten years in this country before it 

 was brought to flower ; but at last it was 

 flowered by Mr. Grimwood, at Kensing- 

 ton, and Mr. Colvill, at Chelsea, nearly 

 about the same time. As tue blossoms 

 arc remarkable in form, beautifully co- 

 loured, and large in size, the young plants 

 ■were readily sold, and extensively circu- 

 lated ; so that there aro but few stove col- 

 lections at present in which the plant is 

 not to be met with. It was not till some 

 time after it flowered in England that bo- 

 tanists were agreed about its name; in 

 fact, it bore several names, until at last it 

 was described and named by Mr. Roscoe. 

 Although the plant is not at all rare, it is 

 seldom seen in flower, which is owing, 

 perhaps, to its not being generally known 

 that it is a half aquatic. In its native 

 country, the southern provinces of China 

 and India, it is invariably seen growing 

 on the sides of the ponds, in gardens, or 

 ■on the banks of canals in the oj)en coun- 

 try. In those situations, and in rich 

 ;alluvial soil, the stems rise to the height of 



six or eight feet, and the nodding spikes 

 of flowers aro magnificent. From these 

 circumstances, it will be seen that the 

 readiest way of flowering this plant would 

 be to keep it rather dry thi'oughout the 

 depth of winter, and, about the first of 

 February, shift it into a large pot — a six- 

 teenth size at least — and in a compost of 

 strong loam well enriched with rotten 

 dung ; then plunge in a brisk bark-bed 

 heat to prompt a vigorous growth by daily 

 suppHes of tejDid water. Or, if planted in 

 a trunk, in the corner of a bark-bed, the 

 plant would have a good chance then to 

 perfect its flowers. 



Our plant belongs to the first class and 

 first order of sexual botany, and to the 

 natural order Scitaminefe, and is easily 

 propagated by division of the root. It is 

 hardly necessary to add that there are 

 many other stove plants which seldom or 

 never flower under the ordinary stove 

 management, but which are weU. worth a 

 little extra labour to bring them into 

 flower, and partievilarly several genera 

 belonging to the same natural order to 

 which the alpinia does. 



J. Main. 



M'EWEN ON THE CULTtrRE OE THE PEACH. 



;?roTflhe least of the regrets that mingled 

 with ithe general sorrow we all felt at Mr. 

 M'Bven's death in the prime of Ins man- 

 hood, and the moment of his highest mflu- 

 ence and usefulness, was that arising out 

 of tfee fact that his then newly-commenced 

 series of works on fruit culture must have 

 an end in their very beginning. For many 

 years honoured and deferred to as a man 

 rich in experience in all the higher de- 

 partments of horticulture, and especially 

 in the culture of fruits, he was just then 



extending the cii-cle of his fame by the 

 wise direction of his energies in the garden 

 of the Horticultiu-al Society, on which, as 

 superintendent, he had laid a firm hand and 

 a determined will to eflect complete and ne- 

 cessaryreforms. Deathmakes nodistinetiong 

 or he would have spared such a man at least 

 for a few years, to accomplish the important 

 task he had accepted, and for which there 

 were so few whose experience, intelligence, 

 integrity, and patience were so admirably 

 combined as they were in him — a man of 



